Otavalo and Tulcan - our last taste of Ecuador before we're shoved out the door

After leaving Quito we had one more stop to make in Ecuador before getting to the border.  Everyone talks about Otavalo, which is a small, mainly indigenous town about 2 hours north of Quito. It's famous for its market which is the largest Indian market in South America. And even though we don't really have the space to buy anything for ourselves or others, we couldn't miss it.  

The main plaza in Otavalo.

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon which turned out to be good timing, as if we'd arrived the next day we probably wouldn't have found a room. This was because we were just in time for the Yamor festivities, which are held every year to give thanks during the corn harvest season. On the Friday night there was a big street parade to celebrate this time of year and Kurt was lucky enough to be singled out by someone in the parade and given some Yamor to try, which is a traditional liquor made of fermented corn. The parade was a mixture of all different kinds of music and dancing, with groups dressed in different costumes, and the people strutting their stuff ranged in age from about 8 to 98. 

The crowd were all getting into it, and showed their appreciation by rewarding one particularly spry and enthusiastic dancer of about 80 with a glass of beer which he sculled in seconds. Well earned old boy. There were also floats throughout the parade with young women all dolled up and hoping to be crowned the Queen of the festival at the end.  A couple of them even had the royal wave so down pat they put Queen Elizabeth to shame.  They'd clearly been training hard for the occasion.

Twinkle toes earning his beer.

The Otavalo market is on every day, but Saturday is by far the biggest day of all. We started by going to the animal market which is only open from 6am-10am, and is where all the locals buy and sell their creatures, large and small. There were cages and pens of chickens, guinea pigs, cows, pigs, sheep and even kittens and puppies. You have to leave all your animal rights principles and indignation behind as their comfort and well-being isn't high on the list of priorities for the locals. But it's as real and authentic as you get, and we got to see how they live and conduct business without any glossing over for tourists, so it was interesting to see.

After the animal market we headed back into town to wander around the artesan market, which spreads out over several streets and blocks in a riot of colour and noise.  There is stall after stall selling locally woven textiles, jewellery, musical instruments, dream catchers, leather goods, indigenous costumes, hand-painted platters and trays, purses, clothing, spices and food.  After some careful comparison and skillful bargaining, Kurt had himself a couple of local Ecuadorian football (soccer to us) shirts. We managed to resist the imploring calls from all the other stalls to buy their wares. Such is the blessing of having nowhere to put it.  

After randomly running into Anna and Aaron (the Swiss couple) who we hadn't seen for a few weeks, we had to jump on a bus if we wanted to make it to the border town of Tulcan before dark. After waiting about 40mins in a long queue that wound through the bus station, we finally got on our first bus. 45mins later we had to change buses, but had another hour wait til it arrived.  So, after a few hours we finally made it to Tulcan and thankfully found a hotel just before it got dark.  Some Tulcan stats for you: capital of the northern Carchi province; the highest city in Ecuador at 3,000m; 7km from the Colombian border; complete and utter shithole.  Thank god we were only going to be there for about 17 hours. Unfortunately we discovered that our hotel was on top of a club that played the horrible, mind-numbing crap we heard everywhere, where the bass line was exactly the same in every single song. Not really the kind of soothing lullabye we were after.

The next morning before we crossed the border and said goodbye to Ecuador, we thought we might as well check out Tulcan's big drawcard - a topiary garden cemetery. I was a bit skeptical. I mean, how cool can some pruned trees really be? Pretty cool as it turns out. The whole cemetery is full of different types of shrubs and trees pruned into weird and wonderful exotic shapes of animals, angels, geometric shapes and Incan symbols. It's also a functioning cemetery so it's free to the public, and luckily it was quiet on the early Sunday morning we were there. And while it was seen as a bit odd when the creator first started his Edward Scissorhands act on the trees in 1936, it soon became a well-respected site. So much so that the creator is now buried there and his five sons continue his work.

It was finally time to get to the border and officially check out of Ecuador before we were kicked out. Despite the fact that the taxi actually drove us over the bridge to the Colombian side first and we had to walk back across to get our exit stamps for Ecuador, we had no problems.  Hasta luego Ecuador - we'll be back.

Quality time in Quito

When we first arrived in Ecuador we headed straight up to Quito which is high in the Andes (2850m) in the north of the country.  And even though it's the capital, it's the second largest city in Ecuador with a population of about 2.5 million.  The city is ridiculously long and spread out, so it takes an hour to get from either the north or south bus station to the city centre.  But public transport is really good and crazy cheap (only 25 cents no matter how far you go), so as long as it's not rush hour it's all good.

There are two main areas in Quito that are worth seeing - the Old Town and the New Town.  Pretty self-explanatory.  In the New Town there is an area called the Mariscal where the majority of travellers stay, as it's got shitloads of hostels, hotels, bars and restaurants.  In our first week there we ended up staying at 3 different hostels in a row on one street.  Just spreading the love around.  Our favourite hostel was the last one we stayed in, called Galapagos Natural Life Hostel.  It was quite a small place that would have accommodated about 20-25 people, and it was great.  For $8 a night we had a comfy bed in a dorm (only 4 beds and they weren't bunks) and one of the best breakfasts we've had so far - fresh fruit and yoghurt, scrambled eggs with fresh bread and home-made butter, fresh fruit juice and hot chocolate.  And the owners were an old couple that were just like everyone's grandparents and made the hostel feel like home.  So, if you're ever in Quito, we definitely recommend it.

In our first week, before we went to the Galapagos Islands, we did a couple of touristy things.  There's actually not a huge amount of things to see and do in Quito which we actually liked, as we didn't feel obliged to go out and do something every day.  Sometimes we just want to chill out and do nothing.  But we did go and wander around the Old Town, which has some beautiful old churches, cathedrals, convents and monasteries, as well as the Presidential Palace which is on the central plaza.  The changing of the guard takes place there every Monday at 11am, but unfortunately we didn't manage to get back for that.

Presidential Palace

The Church with the golden door.

The Monastery of San Francisco

It was a nice area to walk around for a while, then we got a taxi up to El Panecillo (Little Bread Loaf hill) where there's a huge statue of the Virgin of Quito.  The view from the top is amazing, as you can see the whole city stretched out below and also the surrounding volcanoes.

The statue of the Virgin of Quito.

Ecuador's biggest claim to fame is the fact that it's located on the equator.  About 22km north of Quito is the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World), where there's a huge monument marking latitude 0^o0'0" on the equator.  However, because these measurements were first made in 1736 there was no such thing as GPS, therefore the monument, built between 1979-1982, is actually in the wrong place.  How embarrassing.  Even more embarrassing is the fact that so many tourists go there and get all these photos hopping over from one side of the 'equator' to the other, not knowing that they're in the wrong place.  We'd read about this before we went so we knew, but we wanted to go anyway.  It was funny to watch people blissfully unaware of their ignorance. 

Yes, we know it's in the wrong place, but we'll get a photo anyway just so no-one suspects we know.

 About 200m north of the Mitad del Mundo is a museum called Museo Solar Intiñan, which is located on the true equatorial line and also lies on a 1000 year old indigenous site.  Funny how the indigenous knew where the equator line was 1000 years ago, and French scientists couldn't figure it out just over 250 years ago.  This museum was a million times better than the monument as it had explanations of the lifestyle of the indigenous tribe that lived there, including how they shrunk heads (we saw one of the few real ones but weren't allowed to take photos). 

The REAL equator line at Museo Solar Intiñan.

Step 2 of the head shrinking process - remove skull.

 

Step 5 - insert hot rocks into empty 'head'.

Burial chamber of a Chief.

There were also some cool 'scientific' experiments you can do, like watching water go down a plughole in different directions depending which side of the equator it's on.  And it really did change directions when it was moved from the 'northern' hemisphere to the 'southern' hemisphere, and it went straight down when it was on the equator line.  Crazy.  There was also an experiment where we had to try and balance a raw egg (on it's fatter end) on the flat end of a nail.  Whoever could do it got a certificate at the end, proving they were an 'Egg Master'.  Of course both Kurt and I proved our skills at mastering the egg.  Was there really ever any doubt? Then there were a couple of experiments to do with energy and balance.  One was trying to walk along the equator line with eyes closed and arms held out to the sides.  Every adult who tried it fell over almost immediately, but kids, who have a lower centre of gravity, could walk along easily.  And we also tested out strength, which is almost non-existent when standing directly on the equator line.  The place was touristy, but really fun and interesting.  And it's actually the proper, GPS calculated location of latitude 0^o0'0" on the equator.  If only everyone knew it.

Quito, and in particular the Mariscal, is a big party town.  Across the road from our hostel was an Irish bar where we became regulars during our time in Quito, drinking the very average local Ecuadorian beer (Pilsener) and meeting heaps of other travellers and ex-pats living in Quito.  Two of the bar owners were actually Irish, so we got to watch a few Wallabies and All Blacks games in the wee small hours.  We also ate some great food, as there was an amazing variety of restaurants in the Mariscal that we'd been missing for months.  We ate Mexican, Indian, Thai, Chinese and Uruguayan steak.  We did also eat local food at a big market, mainly at lunchtime when we could get a set lunch for $1.50 - soup, main course of either meat/chicken/fish with rice and beans or salad, and a glass of juice.  We'd just wander around the market until we found a little stall with a menu we liked the look of then pulled up a stool. We have no idea how it's even possible to get so much food for so little, but our stomachs and wallet were happy.

The market where we ate our cheap, tasty lunches.

When we got back from the Galapagos we spent 4 more nights in Quito at the same hostel, and we were welcomed back with open arms by our 'grandparents'.  We didn't really do anything except drink and chill out before we went south to Baños and then to the coast, then we were back in Quito yet again.  We'd decided to do Spanish classes for a month as it seemed to be the cheapest place to do it, and we also really liked the city and were happy to settle in somewhere for 4 weeks or so.  We stayed another week at the hostel before someone recommended a cheap hostel up on the hill that rented out rooms long-term.  We only had to pay $225 for our own room for a whole month.  That worked out at $7.26 a night for both of us.  Can't get much cheaper than that.  And even though it was a struggle to walk up the hill every time we went out, it was worth it for the incredible view from the roof-top terrace. 

We were also finally able to cook for ourselves again, as there hadn't been a kitchen in any hostels for months.  So for a month we got into a routine of going to classes in the morning from 9am-12pm, then getting a cheap lunch at the market and doing homework and chilling out in the afternoons.  Our classes were also pretty cheap - $9 an hour for the two of us with our own teacher.  She was good and went over stuff we'd learned in Sydney, but it was helpful as it made more sense and was easier to remember this time round.  We also learnt some new stuff, and we're now finally able to use the past tense which is useful as we no longer have to sound like retards who constantly talk in the present tense.  But we ended up getting pissed off with the school, as our teacher was a no-show twice without anyone telling us in advance.  If we ever couldn't make it to class we had to give 24 hours notice, but the same rules apparently didn't apply to the staff.  So we decided to just spend the last week revising and studying what we'd learnt by ourselves, rather than get fucked around again. 

The final touristy thing we did in Quito was to go up the Teleferico, which is a gondola-type ride that takes you up the eastern side of Pichincha Volcano to the top of a massive hill lookout (4100m), with spectacular views over the city.  Claire, a German girl we met in the hostel wanted to do it before she left Quito that day, so we went along.  We walked a short way up the hill, but none of us were keen to make the 3.5 hour hike to the summit of another mountain.  We had a good enough view where we were and weren't in the mood for strenuous activity.

Our final month in Quito flew by, and before we knew it we had to leave if we wanted to see another place before our 3 months were up.  We loved Quito and it really became our home in Ecuador.  We learnt some more Spanish, ate great food, drank way too much and met awesome people in this city.  It's probably only the second place we've been so far that we could actually see ourselves living.  We were sad to leave Quito, but also excited as it meant we were on the move again.

Cruising the coast of Ecuador

After Baños we were ready for some quality beach time, so we headed out to the coast.  After a 10 hour overnight bus ride from Baños, we arrived in a town called La Libertad.  We then had to get a taxi out to the beachside city of Salinas where we thought we'd start our coastal journey.  However, when we got there it was 6am and no hostels/hotels were open, and the ones we saw looked way out of our price range anyway.  It just seemed like too much of a resort town where rich locals or tourists would go, so we decided to jump on a bus and head further north to Montañita.

Montañita is a small coastal town on the Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) and is a tourist mecca for surfing, partying and chilling out on the beach.  We walked around a few hostels and eventually chose one that was right across from the beach.  The only thing separating us from the water was the sea wall, so it was a great view from the balcony.  

View from our hostel

We were only there for 2 nights during the week so we didn't see any of the craziness that we hear happens on the weekends, but the beach was still pretty packed during the day.  It was a really nice beach with soft sand and beautiful warm water, and a shitload of optimistic surfers waiting for a wave.  Apparently it was the wrong time of year for good surf, but that didn't deter people.  And although it's probably the most touristy place on the coast, we still managed to find some good, cheap local places to eat - $1.50 for a 2 course lunch and juice, and $5 for dinner.  It really isn't hard to escape the over-priced tourist restaurants if you try.  So after only a couple of days chilling in Montañita we decided to keep heading north to the next place.

That next stop was a small fishing village called Puerto López, which is one of the main spots to go whale watching between mid-June to October.  That was all we really knew about the place, so we found a hostel and figured we'd find a tour for the next day.  As it turned out, the hostel either owned or worked in conjunction with a tour agency around the block, so we got a discount for the whale watching tour.  It was only $15 each which seemed to be a pretty good deal, so we booked for the second day.  We asked the girl how likely it was that we'd see whales and she assured us it was 100%, but she wouldn't agree to give us our money back if we didn't see any.  What a surprise.  The weather wasn't great and there was a bit of a swell, so when we got to the whale watching 'spot' and turned the engine off, we were rolling around a bit.  There were other boats out there too, just sitting and waiting to spot a whale.  So we sat, and we waited.  And waited.  For about an hour (well, it felt like that long, but was probably much less), until someone yelled out and then we were off on the chase.  It was crazy, every time someone spotted a whale we'd go charging off after it so we could get as close as possible.  At home there would be strict rules about how many hundreds of meters away you had to stay to give the whales space, but no such rules exist in Ecuador.  The first couple of times I only saw the spray of water from the blowhole, but then eventually we kept spotting their backs as they'd breach the surface.  

Of course the one time a whale actually jumped high out of the water we were facing the wrong way and missed it.  Bugger.  It was also impossible to get a good shot when we were rolling around over big waves, but at least we got to see quite a few whales.  Lucky, or that poor girl would have had us demanding our money back.  And Kurt wouldn't have taken no for an answer.  Again, I was surprised that I didn't get seasick due to the rough conditions, but some other people weren't so lucky.  This time it was two guys who spent the entire time hanging over the back spewing their rings out.  I don't think they saw a single whale.  Money well spent boys. 

Puerto López is a very chilled out village, so apart from the whale watching we just wandered around town and up and down the beach.  An Aussie guy we'd met the first time in Quito, Paul, was doing the Ruta del Sol from the other direction, so we figured we'd cross paths somewhere along the way.  We ended up catching up with him on our third day in Puerto López, but the funniest thing was that he was actually staying in the same hostel as us.  Funny how that happens.  We were going to have some beers in the arvo, but it was a Sunday so that wasn't going to be possible as it's illegal to sell alcohol on Sundays in Ecuador.  Apparently it's because the locals get so fucked up they don't turn up to work on Monday.  There's nothing to stop people buying up large on Saturday though, but we hadn't thought of that ourselves.  However, not ones to give up so easy we thought we'd try our hand at buying some illicit booze from some random corner store, and to our surprise it couldn't have been easier.  The little old lady up the street didn't even hesitate in selling us two bottles of vodka, for only $7.50 each.  Not as cheap as other countries, but still a bargain.  In the end, we actually found a place on the beach that would sell us beer anyway, so we started off down there drinking cold beer watching the sun go down, observing a crazy man methodically sweep the beach with his metal detector.  Then we retired to the rooftop at our hostel and cracked open the vodka.  You can't beat a good old Sunday session.  We were actually going to leave town that Sunday, but we delayed it a day so we could catch up with Paul.  But the next day was time to leave, so we jumped on a bus north again.

After about 5 hours we arrived in Canoa, which is another chilled out fishing village.  It's also popular with travellers, but thankfully isn't over-run like Montañita. Yet.  It was getting dark when we got there, so after wandering around for a while trying in vain to find a place Paul recommended to us, we found an awesome looking place right on the beach at the end of the street, made out of bamboo.  We figured we'd look for the other place in the morning, which we did.  It was a bit further along the beachfront street than we'd looked the previous night, and when we found it we knew why Paul had recommended it to us.  It's called Coco Loco and is another big bamboo building, and dorm beds were only $6.  It doesn't get much cheaper than that so we moved our stuff over.  

Coco Loco - our home away from home in Canoa

It's run by an American woman and her Mexican husband, and they make everyone feel welcome.  It felt like home after only a couple of days.  We had initially thought we'd stay in Canoa and do Spanish lessons, but after a few days we didn't think it was really the place to stay for a month.  It was a good place to chill out, but there really wasn't anything to do.  We still really loved the place and stayed for a week, just relaxing and doing basically fuck all.  

On our 5th or 6th night we were talking and drinking with a Swiss couple, but it wasn't until the next night that we realised we hadn't exchanged names.  It's funny, but that happens all the time.  The usual questions like what's your name, what do you do etc just aren't that important when you're travelling and get talking to strangers.  Well, at least not until the second day/night.  We eventually introduced ourselves, and spent the next night drinking and playing poker with Anna and Aaron and another couple of people.  Kurt and Aaron were the last ones still battling it out, and eventually finished up at about 5am.  Neither of them could really be assed playing on, but they wouldn't give up either, on principle.  Anna and Aaron were travelling around South America in their kombi they'd bought in Chile and were also heading north, so Kurt asked if they'd mind giving us a lift to the next beach.  They said they were going to ask us if we wanted to go with them anyway, so it all worked out well.  We were looking forward to travelling up the coast with them in their faithful kombi 'Pepe'.

Anna and Aaron's faithful kombi 'Pepe'

After backtracking to a nearby town town to get cash out and stock up on supplies, we drove about 200km north to a sleepy fishing village called Mompiche.  While it's still low-key and undeveloped compared to all the other coastal hot spots, it's slowly growing in popularity with tourists.  It's probably one of the most scenically unique locations along the coast, as there is a thick layer of protective rainforest between the highway and the village.  This makes it feel quite remote from anywhere, so it's the perfect place to escape from it all.  

View of Mompiche from the top of our hostel

When we arrived it was getting dark so we pulled up and Anna ran up and checked out a couple of hostels.  She found one that would let us drive Pepe inside the gate where it would be secure and they could sleep in the van.  We were actually trying to find a specific hostel as Kurt and I had met an Argentinian guy in Quito a few weeks before who owned a hostel there, and he told us to stay there if we went.  But it was too dark so we just stayed at the place Anna found.  We had a few beers at this little bar right by the beach, which was basically a hut, then went back to the hostel.  And who appears at the top of the stairs but Martin, the Argentinian guy.  Turns out we'd found his hostel after all.  The next day he told us that we wouldn't be paying for our room, and Anna and Aaron could stay for free too.  Sweet. 

Even though it was the time of year when it's generally cloudy and cooler than the high season, it was still plenty warm enough for us and we ended up spending 6 nights there.  It was a great place to chill out and eat cheap, good seafood, and explore.  It was a small village but one thing we noticed and really liked were the way the houses were all built out of bamboo, and were very open.  Only the bedrooms had windows, with the rest of the house being open to the cool sea breeze.  Perfect.  

There was actually a surprising amount of things to do and see in Mompiche.  We walked out to Playa Negra, a beautiful black sand beach that is sadly being reduced in size as they are mining the sand which is rich in titanium.  We've been to a black sand beach in New Zealand, but this sand was unlike anything else.  It was so fine and soft it felt like silk when we'd rub our sand covered feet together.  Incredible.  

Playa Negra

We also went across to Portete Island, accessible only by small boat, which used to be a well-kept secret but is now well-known amongst locals and travellers.  And unfortunately there's now a huge ugly eyesore on the hillside in the form of an all-inclusive resort complex.  The rest of the island is pretty tranquil and unspoilt though, with miles and miles of sandy beach and thousands of bright orange crabs scuttling all over the show.  Apart from some food and arts/craft stalls, there are no other services on the island.  We also walked along the beach back in Mompiche and up to the headland where a small local cemetery is located, and it was a beautiful view back along the beach.  A very calm, peaceful place.  

Portete Island

View from the cemetery

However, our most unsuccessful outing was to try and spot monkeys in the forest area just a short walk from the beach.  We'd been told by a German guy that once we reached the forest it was only about a 1km walk and to look out for a big tree.  Thanks for narrowing it down mate, it's a forest and there are lots of big trees.  We figured we'd just keep walking and hopefully find, or at least hear, the monkeys, but it wasn't the easiest walk.  It started out muddy and slippery then we had to constantly wade through a river and over slippery rocks.  Not the easiest terrain in jandals/thongs, especially when Kurt's kept blowing out every 2 minutes.  It was also pissing down for a while, but that was actually quite nice.  But after about an hour of walking we figured there would be no monkey watching that day, so we headed back. 

After 6 nights in Mompiche we made the long drive back to Quito, which took us about 9 hours.  Pepe needed an oil and filter change along the way, but did well to get us back over the Andes and to the cold heights of the capital.  We'd had a great 3 weeks cruising up the Ecuadorian coast, eating good food and drinking plenty and meeting great people.  Thanks to Anna, Aaron and Pepe for letting us travel with them - hopefully we'll meet up again soon.